Comments

I am very doubtful about pom city's daily updates...no concrete evidence,regardless

Thanks Amanda and team for another comprehensive update on data prices in PNG, it is interesting to see how things are unfolding. It certainly does pay to shop around the various platforms to access both Digicel and Telikom bandwidth. We have found that topping up prepaid plans via Digicel online top-up website provide options not available on the USSD menu. Both Digicel and Telikom offer 30 day 50GB @ K230 which equates to 46t per megabyte. Anyone with a smart phone should probably check the websites - especially Digicel as their 30 day USSD options do not compete with the website option. These prices have not changed either all year. Satish makes a good point, too, about competition. In fact many of the "Digicel" towers around PNG were wholly or partly funded by local MPs. It would seem only fair if these assets funded with public funds could somehow co-locate other ISP equipment ... even the smaller, local ISPs that are emerging. As well as reducing the amount of unsightly towers around the country it would increase competition and hopefully lower prices. As things stand, in places it's a little like the govt funding a road and only letting one trucking company use it. Anyway, let's see what is around the corner with Elon Musk's Starlink service. If that lives up to its hype it could be truly disruptive and we might not need towers or submarine cables 🙂 Thanks to you, Picky and Moses for the excellent information.

Definitely get unemployed to work there. Some say they will not enjoy the work, neither do half of australians going to work. Why should they sit on their backside and take taxpayers money for doing nothing. The government pay you until you find work not to find something you really like

Well said, successive governments have run huge deficits every year, thanks to foreign aid and local funding from FNPF, the country has been able to progress through private sector investors. Like when building a house we need plans, Fiji lacks short, medium and long term SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC development plans. And like we need inspectors for progress, this country needs auditing it’s government expenditure from all departments to politicians. Fiji doesn’t need more money but better management of its resources. Corruption is driving the country into uncertainty as debt rises.

Good read. Warm regards. Ravi Joshi, Former Senior Adviser at Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Solomon Islands.

Tom, many thanks for your comments. I agree that there is a need to test the domestic labour market. I have suggested in an earlier blog that a national campaign on the UK's Feed the Nation be set up to invite expressions of interest, requests to apply, offers of work and acceptances based on the jobseeker's clear understanding of what is involved. This understanding should include not only the nature of the work but also evidence that they have suitable accommodation and have a negative result from the COVID test just before they take up work.

Thanks for this informative and timely blog, and please continue to update us on prices and coverage of telephony in PNG. Access to digital technology for information is now more important than ever before. Many of my friends in PNG carry two phones, or sometimes one phone with two SIM cards. This is done to take advantage of lower prices offered by BMobile/Telikom where there is coverage and Digicel for regions not covered by Telicom. I am also told that the extensive antenna network that Digicel put up when it first entered the market gave the company a head-start that Telikom has not been able to match. Allowing access to the same antenna-infrastructure at competitive prices by both networks may increase competition and in the process deliver better coverage and prices for the population at large.

Interesting analysis.

Facts. I just left after 12 years. It's so corrupt it's just insane.

Awesome..

All very interesting Richard - the free-markets fan in me perhaps naively assumes that if we don't get the foreign labour to meet the summer picking needs, the market mechanism will kick in to deliver the most obvious alternative - i.e. domestic labour at a higher price. I guess the big question though is whether that price would be so high that it renders the entire exercise commercially non-viable. Having regard to the previous comment by Andrew Coldbeck - as well as my own experiences trying to hire staff for a part-time position over the past few months (as JobSeeker affects labour markets) - perhaps the answer, at least as it currently stands, it clearly yes. In which case I guess we need to one of: a) import labour and manage the risk, as you advocate; b) arrange sufficient government financial aid such that affected industries can obtain domestic labour at a reasonable effective price; or c) abandon at least a portion of the affected crops (which option can only be entertained if we are confident we will be able to access adequate alternatives for local consumption, and the government provides financial relief to "abandoning" crop owners)

Charter cities didn't fail. The ZEDE in Honduras is getting started right now in Roatan. Prospera.hn